North East Monsoon: Heavy rains bring down energy consumption by 20 per cent in TN

CHENNAI: Heavy rains lashing the state for the past few days have brought down daily energy consumption by nearly one-fifth, in a relief to power managers.

The State’s daily energy consumption has come down by 20 per cent to 302 million units on October 15 from around 380 MU at the beginning of the month.

With the onset of the northeast monsoon, the State has been witnessing heavy rains across the State leading to less power consumption.

On October 1st, the energy consumption stood at 389 MUs while in September, the consumption crossed the 400 MUs mark akin to the peak summer period.

The city’s peak power demand on Tuesday was 2,775 MW and daily energy consumption was 64.337 MU. On October 1, the city’s power demand stood at 3664 MW while the consumption was 82.94 MU. The reduction in the city’s energy consumption was over 22 per cent.

A senior Tangedco official said that with the rain lashing many parts of the State, there is a fall in residential and agricultural power consumption.

“The city has been witnessing rain for the last one week and the weather has become cooler during the night time. With the cooler weather conditions, many residents were not switching on their air conditioners which consumes maximum power in the city,” the official said.

The agricultural load has fallen due to less usage of motor pump sets for irrigation purposes following widespread rain in the last few days. “This also helps us save power from the agricultural sector,” an official said. The power demand would continue to remain less until the end of the northeast monsoon.